the holiday weekend is here.. and so are the cold temperatures. we're tracking a chilly christmas.. here in the bay area. right now at 5:00, the holiday weekend is here and so are the cold temperatures. the news at 5:00 starts now. thank you for joining us on this saturday. we begin with the weather and what should be a chilly night as people gather for christmas eve and the first night of hanukkah. >> that's right, we have enjoyed temperatures mainly in the 40s and the 50s. here is a look right now at what we're seeing out in the bay area. we did wake up to some 30s out near the north bay and also out near the trivalley as well. san francisco in the 40s, 48 degrees, we saw pretty nice,

cool temperatures. a closer look at seeing 30s on the map already. we're expecting overnights to drop. they are active right now in the north bay, a freeze warning that will remain in effect until christmas morning. that's because the temperatures have the possibility of dropping between 27 and 32 degrees. that will definite i will be an area you'll want to bring your points in tonight for christmas eve. and protect your plants that could create an issue as you go into the overnight hours and early mornings. the rest of the bay area is not under a freeze warning, tomorrow morning we are expecting to wake up to a pretty cold morning. if you will be up with family and friends, plans tomorrow, that will be also be a possibility. as we go into christmas day. we'll see a slight change that will consist of a lot of cloud

cover. into the evening, a little more cloud cover break up tonight. >> our free nbc bay area app is a great way to track the weather conditions in your neighborhood. you can use your live doppler radar. >> it has been a difficult commute for drivers to or from southern california. the chp escorted some cars through, but i-5 east is back open. >> if you have not finished your christmas shopping today, you're not allow. how are the procrastinators doing at the mall, chuck? >> vicky, if the food court is any indication. this is a busy place. a lot of people taking a break here, looking down the length of the mall, still a lot of shoppers at this hour, also a

line of people here to see santa, and valley fair mall opened two ours earlier than usual today. it closes at 6:00 p.m. anecdotally, store managers say this has been a very good year. that's in keeping with the national retail federation. keeping with a 33% increase in sales for the holidays over last year. shoppers said it was busy, but not as busy as they expected today. >> how do you think of shopping on the day before christmas in the united states? >> too crowded. too many people. everybody is like -- >> it's crazy, but i'm glad to be here, i'm shopping for my wife, i have not gotten her anything yet. >> how did dad do today? >> he did good, i helped him, good for mom. >> did you expect to see so many people today. >> yes, but this isn't as much as we usually see. >> a lot of people were

jockeying for spaces, but nothing like the gridlock we saw several weeks ago here. again you see a lot of people here looking at santa again, the valley fair mall is open tomorrow but reopens on monday at 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. >> chuck, thanks, looks like people are in good spirits there. let's take you to some more santa claus video. this is lefty o douls. handing out to under privileged children around the city. they're hoping to beat last year's record of 10,000 toys. in order to do so they need your help. >> give a toy, donate online, do what you can. you will help a kid wake up happy. >> the toys will be delivered to

community centers and churches around the city. the restaurant will be accepting donations until 2:00 a.m. >> what was supposed to be a charitable toy give away has turned into a contentious dispute. tom jenson is live in san jose with the details. good evening, thom. >> this is what is supposed to happen to a million dollars worth of toys donated by the dynacraft wheels corporation. more than 8,000 electric cars and scooters worth hundreds of dollars each going to poor families for christmas. >> it's nice, it's what they're doing for us for people that can't afford one of these. >> the county learned this week that some of his staff and other county employees were given dozens of the toys even though they were supposed to go to the

needy. they say they don't know how many toys went to county workers. >> there's no way to determine that other than it's been estimated between two and three dozen. the employees were told they need to return the gifts so they go to the right people. but the county executive down played the give away and immediately told workers they're not legally obligated to return the toys. in a strongly worded statement, they said the toys did go to less fortunate families. he also took some jabs at the assessor saying he "jumped to conclusions." failed to educate himself with the facts and called the press with what he thought was a hot story. his assistant told us that county workers took about two dozen toys and they all went out with a caveat. >> we would have said these are for low income families, if we know of some we'll give you one to take to somebody.

>> the assessor disputes that and doesn't take kindly to the claim about his motive. >> he is flat wrong saying we got ahold of the press because we didn't. he needs to educate himself about how this started. >> meanwhile, more than 500 families got some of those toys today, and the kids who will open those tomorrow will probably never know the controversy that surrounded their gifts. tom jenson, nbc bay area news. >> thom, thank you. a sign of the holiday season. porch pirates ripping off packages from homes. the suspect road up to the home on a black bicycle and he was wearing a tan backpack. >> after a probe from the state of new york, president-elect

trump says he is shutting down his charity foundation. saying he doesn't tpt to conflict with his role as president. they will have to wait until the new york attorney general's office finishes their investigation. they have been looking into the investigation after reports accusing president-elect trump of using donations to settle his lawsuits. tunisia's interior ministry says three people have been arrested in connection with the christmas attack. police are learning more about anis amri's contacts and his jihadist exists. >> three suspects arrested as the country's interior ministry saying they nabbed his nephew. amri was suspected of driving that truck into the christmas market. he apparently wired his nephew

cash so he could join him in europe. he said he was in touch with amri. he asked him to pledge allegiance to isis. the nephew also said he was a prince of a group in germany. the other suspects we don't know much about. authorities will be looking into the details of this group in the day ahead as well as how amri was able to cross so many borders, germany to france, crossing in by 9:00 p.m. on thursday. all of this taking place with authorities on high alert. nbc news, london. next at 5:00. who should discipline kids at school. police officers or educators? reports about kids ending up

with criminal records. we investigate the plan for bay area schools. >> mr. and mrs. obama deliver their final christmas week address and provide a little humor with a flash back to 2009. we'll show you the message.

did so by flashing back to 2009.. ==sot== ...this is our first s president obama and the first lady delivered their last

christmas weekly address. >> this is our first christmas in the white house -- >> what, you have to stop it. you have to get it together, you have to pull it together. >> that's right, we were just saying look how young they look. they still look great. this year they talked about what it is like to celebrate the holidays in the white house. >> celebrating the holidays in the white house over the past eight years has been a true privilege. we have been able to welcome over half a million guests, our out standing pastry chefs have made over 2,000 christmas cookies. >> they're continuing their annual tradition of spending christmas in hawaii where they

will remain until after the new year. it is chilly out there. we have your microclimate forecast. >> today is a day we don't mind it. it makes more of the holiday spirit, i should say. tonight the temperatures will once again drop right back into those 30s which makes for a cold night. temperatures remain in the 30s. and really just all across the bay area. the east bay of fran also seeing 40s. we didn't climb much above the 40s or the 50s today. a nice cool day to enjoy as your family starts to come in and everyone gets settled in. there is a freeze warning that remains in effect until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. temperatures could drop from 27 to 32 degrees. the chilly temperatures will be warming up until sunday.

here is a quick glimpse at what it looks like across the area. parts of the east coast were colder for this time of year. a very rare sight. we saw snowfall. today would be the worst of that travel, so if you had to make your way up there, tonight was maybe the night to shot do so. tomorrow is a much better day to do that. tomorrow the conditions are going to be a lot nicer, cleaner, and clearer as well. we're expecting one to four feet as well by the end of tonight. over the next few days this is what you can expect for your travel. today would be gusty and continue to be gusty into the overnight hours. so it is definitely going to be -- the microclimate forecast, it will be in the 50s for tomorrow. looking pretty good.

i'll send things back to you. >> we'll be right back. = school police officers in now

getting the attention of the white house. our year and a half long investigation in the misuse of school police officers is now

getting attention from the white house. this all comes after our series of reports that revealed some students are leaving school with criminal records for what some describe as childish misbehavior. as a result of our investigation, more than 30 schools are trying to define the role of their campus officers. >> in one of his final acts of power, the obama administration is trying to teach a lesson to the country's 95,000 public schools. they urged educators to stop overrelying on school police officers saying unnecessary arrests and improper involvement in routine school discipline matters can have a negative impact on students. the federal government is now pleading with school districts across the country to create written agreements.

so we travelled here to dc to hear directly from the obama administration about the safety of students in the bay area. >> the ahead of the u.s. department of education. >> students are getting criminal records before they hit puberty. >> that's right, it's very distracting. one of the things we want to do is make sure they're not facing arrest for what really should be classroom management issues dealt with by principals and teachers. >> you think it could affect students? >> he is nin here handcuffs, he doesn't have a knife --

>> sit down in the chair like i asked you. >> in kentucky, this school resource officer is now at the center of a federal lawsuit after handcuffing an 8-year-old boy who was misbehaving in class. >> and a high school freshman was arrested for doing somersaults on the school lawn. >> we met adrian last year. he is autistic, and at 13 he was arrested after etching his initials into a sidewalk >> i thought maybe someone would look at it and say oh, look, a legend. look, a legend, that is so cool, a legend was at this school. but they called me into the office and said, you did something wrong and i think we have to call the cops on you

now. >> adrian was not handcuffed, but he was cited for vandalism. the school district at the time regularly has officers on campus. but we learned school officials have no written policy detailing how those officers should be used. >> why not put that in writing? >> it is just something we have not put into writing. >> dane oversees it. >> he said there is no wrong policy to explain what that means. >> has the message been made clear at ever school in your district? >> absolutely. >> against the nine counties, we discovered 230,000 students attend a school district that fails to define the roles and responsibilities of the campus officer. >> is that surprise something. >> it's distracting. there needs to be policies in place to make sure that officers

themselves understand what their expected to do. >> 46 school districts in the area regularly have officers on campus. we contacted each one and learned that 15 school districts still don't have plans to change their policy. despite the new recommendations from washington. >> they don't see it as necessary. what would you say to that if. >> i think they're making a mistake and that's a litigation risk for districts and ultimately a risk for their long-term success for their students. >> president-elect trump recently announced betsy deboss as his pick for secretary of education. right now, you can log on to our website to find out which school districts in our areas define the role of their officer and which don't. you can easily search by county at nbcbayarea.com.

>> if you have a tip, give us a call at 1-888-996-tips or send us an e-mail. stay with us, we'll be right back.

underwater christmas celebration da group of russian diver

braved the cold for an under water christmas celebration today. the divers plunged into a lake in psi ber ya for a year-end party features a christmas tree, santa clause, and plenty of wine. they dressed in festive costumes and held hands while they swam around the tree. the event has become a local tradition and it is chilly. a lake in psi besiberia. kids will be able to keep tabs on jolly saint nick. didn't on the santa tracking where for 61 years the aerospace and defense command have had their eyes in the sky to follow every stop on chris cringeles madge kal journey. make sure you're being nice and not naughty.

make sure he stops at your house tonight. that's what we have been tuling our girls all week long. stay with us, we'll be right back.

welcome back now, let's get another look at the forecast. it's cold out, but it makes you feel snuggly and warm for the holidays. we have a freeze warning in effect until 8:00 a.m. if you're going to christmas in the park tonight, they don't close until midnight, you're going to wake up to a pretty cold start on christmas morning in the next seven days, here is a look at what you can expect. christmas evening very unlikely, but i'm going to keep it in the forecast. it will be a nice christmas day.

>> santa hopefully will stay dry. >> thank you, we'll have more news for you at 6:00. we'll see you then. breaking news tonight. president-elect trump is shutting down the trump foundation. late word after a storm of controversy and an investigation. the nightmare before christmas. slick roads and runways. treacherous travel as millions head home for the holidays, and the last-minute shoppers trigger madness at the malls. holiday tragedies. a pair of house fires claimed the lives of several children trapped, unable to escape. exploding e-cigs. new incidents raising concerns about a safety of a habit soaring in popularity. and jingle all the way. a tv commercial now a christmas tradition where the wind comes sweeping down the plains. you might not be able to get it out of your head. "nightly news" begins right now.